


How Bugs and Adam Got Together (An ABCF story)

by calathea



Series: A Band Called Fish [2]
Category: Who is Bugs Potter? - Korman
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-23
Updated: 2009-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-05 01:58:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/36550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calathea/pseuds/calathea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bugs & Adam get together in the Band Called Fish universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Bugs and Adam Got Together (An ABCF story)

Bugs Potter is the most infuriating person Adam has ever been in love with.

Actually, he's pretty much the _only_ person Adam had ever been in love with, really properly in love, not like the crush he had on Laura Hamilton in tenth grade, so it's not like he exactly has a lot of grounds for comparison. But Adam figures that almost _anyone_ else he could have chosen to fall in love with would have been less infuriating than Bugs Potter.

He even has a list, composed in the middle of Music Acoustics class, of all the reasons it's a bad idea to be in love with Bugs. It starts with:

> 1\. He's obnoxiously cheerful at _all times_.

runs through:

> 4\. He listens constantly to loud, head-banging noise that isn't even _music_, performed by bands with names like _Pickled Spleen_

and:

> 7\. He has no concept of personal space.

and then, via:

> 12\. He wears that stupid hat when it's cold and looks like an idiot.

finishes up rather plaintively with:

> 14\. I don't think he'll ever notice I'm in love with him, let alone feel the same as me.

which he had crossed out almost as soon as he had written it, when he realized just how pathetic he sounded.

When Adam thinks about it, though, most of the other things (with the possible exception of the _hat_, which he'd pretty much just like to burn) weren't really things he wants to change about Bugs. They were actually, if he is being strictly honest, the things he likes best about Bugs. Bugs just wouldn't be Bugs if he wasn't bouncing around gleefully extolling the virtues of some new band, sitting down practically on top of Adam and demanding that he listen to some chord progression or drum solo, breathlessly declaring that _Dirtbag Serenaders_ (or whoever it was that day) was just, wow, _The Most_, and that he and Adam just _had_ to go listen to them this weekend.

In fact, only point fourteen (and maybe twelve) on his list actually had any validity at all, and it's not like Adam can even say that Bugs is ignoring Adam in particular. Adam has been watching Bugs for almost three years now, ever since they met up again at the event for prospective music majors at the university, and as far as he could tell Bugs is just as cheerfully oblivious of his _other_ admirers as he is of the way Adam feels about him.

And that, Adam decides, is pretty much why Bugs is the most infuriating person in the world to be in love with: Adam can't stop liking Bugs, even though he's annoying, and he also can't quite give up hope that one day Bugs will wake up and see what's right in front of him.

~ * ~

When Adam finally figures out what the secret to getting Bugs Potter to notice him is, he feels like kicking himself. It was really just that obvious.

"I want to kill Professor Matthews," he sighs, collapsing in a chair opposite Bugs in the kitchen of their shared apartment.

Bugs looks up from his music history textbook. "Final project still giving you problems?" he says, capping his highlighter pen. "What is it you have to do again?"

"Compose a song with lyrics taken from a poem," Adam groans, pressing his forehead to the kitchen table. "I'm on my eighth version and I hate every note."

Bugs drops his textbook onto the table. "Play it for me, then," he says, and pokes Adam in the shoulder when he groans. "Come on, you need a second opinion."

He prods Adam into standing, and they go through into Adam's bedroom. Bugs sits down on a corner of Adam's bed and looks at him expectantly.

Adam gulps but sits down at the desk where his computer and keyboard are set up, unplugging his headphones and fiddling with his speakers for a moment. He lets his fingers hover over the start button. "It's not very good," he says, feeling nervous "You know. Don't expect too much. Plus, some of it you'll recognize, because I used that sample of one of your practices. Actually, that's what I started with; the whole song is sort of based on your rhythm."

Bugs nods, and smiles encouragingly.

"Okay," Adam says, and, turning away, presses start.

Three minutes and twenty-four seconds later, he presses stop.

There's a long silence.

Adam clears his throat, a small embarrassed noise. "Well, yeah, okay, I did say it wasn't..." he starts, and turns to look at Bugs, but before he can finish, Bugs has grabbed him and pulled him up to his feet, wrapping his arms around Adam.

"Oh my _god_," Bugs says, squeezing Adam tight. Adam sort of flails in his grasp, not sure how to react. His wriggling dislodges Bugs for a second, but then he folds Adam even closer to him, and Adam subsides, breathing in the smell of Bugs -- drumsticks and composition paper and the metal polish he uses on his kit.

"That was _me_," Bugs says, close to Adam's ear, and his tone is filled with awe. "That was _me_, in your _song_. That was the best song _ever_. Adam, you are the _most_."

Adam chuckles weakly, and Bugs releases his grip enough that Adam can put a little space between them and look Bugs in the eye. "So, you liked it, then?" he says, uncertainly.

"Oh my _god_," Bugs says again, reverentially. "I could _kiss_ you, I love your song so much."

"Uh," says Adam, suddenly extremely aware of how close Bugs is. "Uh, you could. If... you know. If you wanted."

Bugs blinks at him, and Adam is reminded of all the times that he has seen Bugs caught in a corner with some guy or girl, a lead singer or guitarist or scene kid, completely oblivious to how much they _want_ him, how they've decided the best way to a personal connection to the genius on drums is through his pants. He holds his breath, ready for Bugs to get that confused look on his face, the one that says that Bugs doesn't understand why the conversation has wandered away from the _music_. He's looking so hard for it, he almost misses the tiny quirk of Bugs' lips before they cover his own.

It's not a great first kiss, but it's a great second, third, and fourth kiss. Adam is stumbling back, one hand reaching behind him for balance as Bugs presses close to him, when he catches a button on his computer and the music starts up again. He can almost feel the moment Bugs' attention wanders away from the task of mapping Adam's jaw with his lips.

They break away from one another, wide eyed and panting. "I think you need something different there," Bugs says, breathlessly.

"What?" Adam says, tugging distractedly at the neck of his t-shirt, his eyes still on Bugs' lips.

Bugs steps in closer again, and Adam's hands reach up to rest on his chest, his eyes closing, expecting for another kiss... that doesn't happen. Bugs stops the music, and goes back about thirty seconds in the track. "Here," he says, stepping back and frowning. "You need something different, more of a dum-de-dum-PAH."

Adam blinks at him. "Are you serious?"

"Hrmm?" Bugs says, replaying the section again and drumming absently on the desk with his fingers. "Yeah, there. Can you hear the difference?"

Adam just stares. "I. Yes."

"I think if you change that, and maybe, yeah, okay, maybe just tweak the end a little, it'll be perfect. Better than perfect. Awesome," Bugs continues, and grins at Adam. "It'll take you an hour to mix it, and it'll take me an hour to finish my reading, and then we can come back in here and make out until I have to go to class, or, you know, maybe I could even _skip_ class."

"You want to make out?" Adam stutters, confused, "I mean, again?"

"Well, duh, Adam," Bugs says, and, straightening up from the desk, tugs Adam in close again, pressing his forehead into Adam's shoulder and muttering: "Of _course_. Adam, you wrote a _song_ around my drumming. I mean. Wow."

Adam, shell-shocked, wraps his arms back around Bugs and thinks, just before they go for kiss number five, that if _that_ was all he had to do, hell, he could do that every day.

~ * ~

Bugs, it turns out, is still the most infuriating person in the world to be in love with, even when he is in love with you too. Adam mentally adds a new number fourteen to his list:

> 14\. He actually chooses to go listen to terrible bands in dives all over Ottawa instead of staying in and making out with his boyfriend.

"Umbilical Echo!" Bugs says now, accepting a soda from Adam when he comes back from the bar. The club is pretty small and packed, but Bugs has found a space for them right at the front, near the stage, where some guys are setting up a drum kit. "Can you believe they're playing here? They are just. Wow. _The most_. I love their song _Hats Like Rainbows_, I hope they play it tonight. The guitar guy, he does this THING, wait until you hear it!"

Adam laughs, and Bugs grins at him. "The opening bands are," Bugs continues, and then wrinkles his nose. "Yeah, I don't really know anything about them. The first one has kind of a stupid name."

"_You_ think a band has a stupid name?" Adam says, blinking in surprise. "What the hell is it?"

"'A Band Called Fish'," says Bugs, and chugs down his drink before tossing the plastic cup into an overflowing trash can nearby. He reaches out and tugs Adam closer, tangling his fingers in Adam's belt loops and leaning softly against his side. "We could, you know... while we wait for the main band."

Adam raises an eyebrow at him. "Bugs," he says, warningly, but Bugs ignores him and nuzzles into his neck. Adam catches his breath. "I don't think that's such a good idea right here."

He looks around desperately. A couple of girls are looking at them and giggling, but Adam isn't really worried about them, or at least, not yet, even though he can hear one of them saying "Wait! Isn't that Bugs Potter?". He is a lot more concerned that, given how little self-control he has discovered he has around Bugs, he is about to end up with his pants around his ankles, in public, with Bugs rubbing off against him until they get thrown out of the bar (and then probably arrested outside) for public indecency. "Bugs," he says, and then loses his train of thought. "We... I... No?"

Bugs licks down his throat and Adam moans and let Bugs pull him closer.

"What did you say?" Bugs whispers, and Adam shudders at the warm puff of air over the skin Bugs has just moistened with his tongue.

"Nothing, I..." Adam starts, leaning harder into Bugs' body.

Bugs is leaning too, closer and closer, until Adam jumps when something twanged loudly on the stage. Bugs steps away, still holding on to Adam's belt loops. "The uh," Adam starts, then clears his throat to get his voice down to his normal register. "The band is about to play," he says, and Bugs turns away to look at the stage.

In fact, the band isn't about to play -- the band, which is actually two guys looking at the empty seat behind the drum kit in alarm, is having a whispered argument closer to the microphone than is really smart.

"Don't be ridiculous, Bruno," the blond guitarist is saying. "We can't play without a drummer! We just can't!"

Bruno is fidgeting with his bass. "Of course we can, Boots," he says, confidently enough, although he looks more worried than he sounds. "We'll just wing it."

"Oh my god," Boots covers his face with his hands, "We're going to get booed off stage again. They're going to throw things at us. I've only just managed to get the avocado out of the fret from last time!"

Apparently getting tired of Adam's distraction, Bugs tugs Adam close again, his hand slipping under the hem of Adam's t-shirt, and suddenly Adam hears himself squeak, "Hey you, Fish guys! You need a drummer?"

"Adam!" Bugs whispers into his ear, "I don't want to play with these guys!"

"Well, you're going to," Adam says as firmly as he can, wobbling away from Bugs' hands. "I'm your manager. It'll be good for you."

Bugs rolls his eyes, but when the bass player leans over the edge of the stage and says, "Seriously? You can drum? You'd be saving our lives!" he nods reluctantly and allows Adam to boost him onto the stage. He rolls his eyes at Adam again as the two band members already on stage slap him on the back, but dutifully takes a seat at the drum kit.

There is a quick, whispered conference, and then Bruno, who is evidently the front man as well as the bass player, steps up to the microphone and says, "Hi! We are A Band Called Fish!" and the trio breaks into the opening chords of Basketcase.

Relieved, Adam shuffles towards the back of the crowd and leans against a pillar, avoiding looking at the stage, at Bugs drumming, until his body calms down.

Infuriating, he thinks with a sigh, and goes to get another diet coke.


End file.
